The subject invention relates to asphalt coated kraft paper sheet material facings and more specifically, to a low odor asphalt coated kraft paper sheet material facings wherein the asphalt coating layer contains an odor-reducing additive in an amount sufficient to substantially eliminate odor that would otherwise be emitted by the asphalt coating layer without adversely affecting the adherent qualities of the asphalt coating layer. The subject invention also relates to a faced fibrous insulation assembly wherein the asphalt coated facing of the subject invention is bonded to a fibrous insulation blanket that is also odorless or substantially odorless and whose fibers, preferably, are bonded together at their points of intersection with a formaldehyde free binder.
Faced glass fiber insulation assemblies with facings made of kraft paper sheet materials (e.g. kraft papers, foil-kraft paper laminates, or foil-scrim-kraft paper laminates) bonded to major surfaces of glass fiber insulation batts by asphalt coatings have been manufactured and marketed by the glass fiber insulation industry for decades. When these faced insulation assemblies are installed, the facings of these assemblies frequently function as vapor retarders.
Over the decades, the application of the hot asphalt coatings to kraft paper facing materials to produce the asphalt coated kraft paper facing materials has resulted in the release of gaseous emissions with odors that are objectionable to some individuals and that permeate the clothing of the workers at the facing plants manufacturing the kraft paper facing materials. When the hot asphalt coating layers of the asphalt coated kraft paper facing materials are reheated during the application of the asphalt coated kraft paper facing materials to the glass fiber insulation batts at the insulation manufacturing plants to produce faced glass fiber insulation assemblies, gaseous emissions with odors that are objectionable to some individuals and that permeate the clothing of the workers at the insulation manufacturing plants are again released from the asphalt coating layers. To a lesser extent, the presence of the objectionable odors emitted by the asphalt coating layers of the kraft paper faced glass fiber insulation assemblies present a problem in the warehouses and aisles of the retailers where these kraft paper faced glass fiber insulation assemblies are stored and/or sold to contractors and the public. When asked in the past about ways to improve kraft paper faced glass fiber insulation assemblies, professional installers have often cited two items: reduction in the asphalt odor and the elimination of asphalt build up on the knives that they use to cut the insulation assemblies. Yet, in spite of odor-free, hot-mix asphalt compositions that, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,767, have been known at least since 1993, kraft paper facing materials and kraft paper faced glass fiber insulation assemblies have continued to be manufactured and sold with asphalt coating layers that emit objectionable asphalt odors.